In their defense, caloric restriction has been proven to double or triple lifespans in lab rats. (And in defense of common sense, human beings are not lab rats! You need more food than that!)

See, our lifespan is already double what you'd expect in the wild (so to speak), courtesy of modern medicine and improved sanitation. And we still get to eat stuff. Suck on that, rats!

nods

eats another white chocolate-covered longan.

concludes that milk chocolate-covered bananas still have the edge over the other frozen fruit chocolates

is glad not to be a rat, dieting or otherwise

The reason most diets work is that when you are on a diet, you are paying more attention to what you eat, which leads to eating less. The specific rules of the actual diet in question are almost entirely irrelevant.

One time I made a deal with myself: I could eat anything I wanted so long as I was willing to write it down. I did that, down to the last teaspoon of sugar-free Coffee Mate, for a month. You know, it did not prevent me from having a cookie if I wanted one, but it sure prevented me from eating 20 cookies at a time. At the end of the month, I showed it to my doctor, who looked at and said, "If that's all you are eating, you should be losing weight."

Ta da!

The thing that sucks is, she said it in a sympathetic tone of voice. I thought she was going to order tests to figure out why I didn't lose any weight. And then she left the office, my appointment clearly over.

I was very puzzled and disappointed. And again, it took me a couple years to realize that she was assuming I couldn't tell the truth or accurately measure a portion to save my soul. The unspoken part of her sentence was, "Since you did not lose any weight, that cannot have been what you were eating."

I don't know how to get the doctors past the, "Since you did not lose any weight, that cannot have been what you were eating," territory, and on into the, "So let's find why you didn't lose any weight, even though that is all you were eating."

I doubt that I could ever stick to a diet that required that I never eat a specific item. Of course, eating less and moving more isn't helping either. Apparently my ideal diet was when I was in high school walking around with a heavy back pack all day and living entirely on pizza, mountain dew, and Chinese food.

I doubt that I could ever stick to a diet that required that I never eat a specific item.

This is me. When I was at my heaviest, I tried Atkins, since Lewis had read the book and was all ga-ga about it and wanted to try it. And hey, I'm a huge carnivore, I figure it would be great.

I felt like SHIT. And I realized that as much as I adore meat, I love the whole experience-- the bun with the burger, the roux-based sauce to put over a chicken or steak dish, the potatoes in a good beef stew or clam chowder, the rice dish to go alongside picadillo. So I quit while Lewis not only kept going, he was enjoying it and having so much success, he was going whole hog. I couldn't bread chicken cutlets in even the lightest coating of flour, no, no... I had to go find whatever it was that Dr. Atkins recommended, which burned and left my kitchen smelling so bad that I declared war. I told Lewis he could damn well cook for himself and I went on my own diet which was a severe portion control, but I didn't deny myself anything.

Sucked, though, that I couldn't even share a bite of ice-cream with my husband. (He was that hardcore, even after the initial period had long-since passed.) At the time, if I had run into Dr. Atkins, I would have cheerfully punched him in the nose.

Hearts Barb

here is what I think -- I ignore the concept of weight loss -- I am one of those people that can lose a whole 2 pounds in a month. Whee.

I also love to eat. Lots of stuff. almost everything. So what I try to do is concentrate on the nutritially dense foods -- which is fruit and veggies. However, I eat whatever. I just try to limit the calorically dense fooods. And I try to move every day -- 30 minutes is good , 60 is better, but 10 minutes will do.

Sometimes I even lose weight.

Being ill for the last two weeks -- no movement , but the fruits and veggies were high. That is good.

Since Saturday, I've actually stuck to my vow to try to beat down my IBS by cutting out the major sources of refined sugar (for me, that means sweets -- cookies, ice cream, candy, etc., all of which we have in the house because The Boy has a sweet tooth of legndary proportions). I shunned an amazing-looking cupcake with a mountain of frosting (I love frosting more than my family) at a party on Saturday; I turned down Graeter's at the work birthday party yesterday (that should indicate how serious I am about this -- I TURNED DOWN GRAETER'S). No random snacking on cookies, etc. (instead, snacking on fruit/nuts/crackers&cheese).

Lo and behold, my gut feels much better. Whoda thunk it?

Yay, good gut feelings!

Now I want Graeter's.

Teppy, I bow to your amazing will power.